Saturday, March 7, 2009

After impressing local NZIA judges, this modestly-scaled and carefully crafted house has won surprise fame on the web, as images have spread to unlikely corners of the blogosphere (partly via rap artist Kanye West's personal blog!).

More than just a 'beach house', this is our client’s all-year round dwelling. However, the need to relocate the building if required ruled out concrete construction. Instead high levels of insulation, heat pump technology and solar panels on the roof, augment the large double glazed openings that capture sun and trap heat in winter, but cool through sea breezes in summer.

Natural oiled cedar weatherboards, painted plywood and weathered zinc sheet both connect the house to the landscape and some older local traditions, but equally clearly set it apart. This is a house strongly connected to the land but prepared, if the sands and tides shift against it, to move.